Enzyme Kinetics - Denaturing

Effect of Denaturing or Digesting the Enzyme

The Experiments

The effect of denaturing on the rate of enzyme action will be determined by performing four experiments:

1. Two ml of catalase solution mixed with two ml of H₂O₂.

2. Two ml of catalase solution mixed with two ml of H₂O₂ after boiling the enzyme solution.

3. Two ml of catalase solution mixed with two ml of H₂O₂ and 5 drops of 0.1 M CuSO₄.

4. Two ml of catalase solution mixed with two ml of H₂O₂ and 10 drops of 0.5 M CuSO₄.

Notice that the only experimental variable being changed is that in experiments 2 - 4 the enzyme is denatured in some way.

Results

Determine the effect of denaturing the enzyme by examining the results below.

experiment #	enzyme denatured?	see results
1	not denatured
2	by boiling
3	by adding some copper ion
4	by adding lots of copper ion